Hi everyone, what can I say, this site is such a great help - to me especially and everyone who responds to my 'pleas' a million thankyous...with the 3 problems we've had in the past with our lovely boy, we are still carrying out and they are working out - slowly but we're getting there....

You all must think 'this girl has a dog that she can't control and why has she got such a dog!!!' but I hope you don't think that!

BUT I hope you can help me with these 2 problems and hopefully these will be the last!

Can anyone tell me, our Newfy boy is now 18 weeks and  we are still struggling with his jumping up.  He is now nearly 3 stone, and we have taken advice on what you all have said, that when he jumps up (especially at my 7 year old son) we do turn and walk away, but that doesn't work, he just keeps on jumping up and eventually pushes my son over and also with me and my OH, he jumps up at us when we walk into the garden (if he is there) we walk away or shout 'NO' but he continues to do so, so we are lost on that one!

LUNGING & MOUTHING - whenever we take him out on his walks, anyone walking past or coming towards us he gets ready to lunge at them & when he manages to say 'hello' the mouthing starts and it really hurts..... we can't even stop and talk to other dog walkers, it's a nightmare!!! when he goes to do this, we pull him back and shout 'NO'.  Iv mentioned this at puppy school but what they are telling me, just doesn't work, I am doing what they say shouting 'NO' and turning around and walking the other way but he is looking back and trying to get to the person/dog.  His weight is increasing by the day and it's getting really hard to take him out, it's really sad that me or my OH can't walk with anyone.

He doesn't take any notice of tasty treats, I have these in my pocket but he's not interested even if there is no one in sight, he's on 'food alert mode' at all times, I have put a halti on him but again, this doesn't deter him.

KITCHEN WORKTOPS - preparing food is also a nightmare, I HATE crating him up all the time whilst we go about or daily routine like preparing food, having a drink of orange juice and even eating at the table at mealtimes.  Friends of mine have their dogs lie down whilst they are eating or just sitting in their corner then after they have finished THEY then get fed.  NOT OUR BOY! we are constantly shoving him out of the way while I am cooking or preparing tea.  We have told him to sit and stay but nothing works.  We feel it's crule either putting him out in the garden or putting him in his crate as we want our boy to be part of our family.  He barks like mad if he can't come in and he does this for about 30 mins but to have our meal in peace, we have to do these things.  I HATE myself for having to do this, so have you lovely people have ANY ideas or suggestions ?????? also, all chews and toys - he's not interested!! - do you think I should get an extended lead for him to run off some of his energy????? do you think this may help???

I have looked into a behaveourist but god, they are expensive!!!, I have also read most books on these subjects but all say different!! we love our boy so much and (as mentioned) we've waited for him for 2 years, but it's really hard and I know he's starting to 'take-over' or am I over reacting? but it sure feels like he's doing it....

He is due to appear at his first show next month, he's not entering but we are all meeting up with his 3 brothers and 6 sisters, and I want to 'stand out' for the right reasons, it's going to be a lovely day out with nibbles and drinkies and chat, but I am dreading it (my OH has threatened not to go cos of it) I really want to show him but I am really upset thinking that I wont be able to handle him - I HAVE to calm him down somehow!!!

I know iv mentioned this, but my last Newf was nothing like my new boy, even as a pup he was easy to train so that's why I really do think it us (or me!) that is doing all stuff wrong or maybe it me not knowing HOW to train him maybe!!

The last thing I would like to mention, that I nearly had a nervous breakdown, was, he managed last Sunday t time to find my headache tablets, (which I didn't know about at the time) he was vomiting on the sunday night and we were thinking he was coming down with a virus so I thought 'vets tomorrow'!.  On the Monday morning I let him out as usual for a wee and other things, saw in the distance of the garden what I thought was paper ripped up, looked closer and it was the box of headache tablets.  I screamed and just fell to the floor that explains the vomiting as he vomited abour 4 times and partly ate it back (yuk!)

He ended up on a drip for a day and a half, medicines every 8 hours, blood tests, and another one tomorrow, he's not out of the woods yet the vet has said as he may have kidney and (or) liver damage.  I cried for 3 days so I have to keep an eye on him for excessive thirst and dioreea and him being lathargic.  Upto now he's had non of these but iv today yet to see how he is!! and another blood test tomorrow to see if there is any damage at all.

We put everything out of sight and reach, these tablet were at the back of the kitchen worktop as I just put them there at the time for me to take 2 but something distracted me (like the kids!) and I forgot about them.  I blame myself for this and everything else, sorry to go on but it just goes to show you when your back it turned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, went off a bit there, but god iv been awful - iv aged 10 years since we've got our boy tho!

So hopefully this will be the last of my problems!!!! I hope the next time I 'chat' it will be all good newz!!!!!

Thank you all again for taking the time to read my 'post' and any advice or guidence would be so grately accepted, (before I age even more!!!)

Debi
xxxxxxx

No real advice as I have little dogs, not big ones :) but I just wanted to say, don't beat yourself up about this. We've all, however careful we are, managed to leave something where our puppy can eat it. If he vomited that's a good thing, and because he is so big, the tablets will have far less effect on him than they would with a small dog. Vets always tell you the worse case scenario, so that you don't come back at them if anything happens.

I know it's easy to say - but just relax, and enjoy him. When he's grown up you'll look back to his escapades, and laugh!

Hiya,

Puupies eh, :-D,

With the jumping up, there are a few tings you can try, and one of them is withdrawing all contact, don't give him eye contact, or touch or speak to him.  If you say no to him, then you are still giving him attention, even if it is in a strict tone.  Just stand arms folded until he put all four feet on the floor, turn your head to the side in a snooty way, or turn your back if needed.  If he gets no feedback he will stop, even for a second when you can praise him to the hilt.  In the mean time teach him an incompatible behaviour with jumping up such as sit, for which he should be praised lots.

If you don't have time for that and as a management technique, carry around a pocket of treats and pre-empt him jumping up by scattering a few treats on the floor for him to give jim something else to focus on while during that initial excitement.  Given that he's a foody boy, that will become the primary thought in his mind rather than jumping up.

With the mouthing and lunging on walks, If you see someone coming at enough of a distance that he can do something for you like a sit and then you can reward him for that.  He can't be lunging if he's sitting, you keep himn distracted with treats while he is sitting and the person passes.  Obviously if he loves people and they suddenly appear he is going to be too distracted to be able to sit, he probably won't have enough self control to be able to do that at his age but maybe turn in the other direction encouraging him with something yummy.  If you meet someone and you've got the time and they want to say hello, then explain the situation to them and if he starts to get mouthy or jumpy just ask them to stop fussing till you can get him back in a sit.  Again have something yummy to distract him if he gets too much.  Maybe try some different treats and vary them, things like hot dog sausage, cheese, beef, peperami is a special one for some, some love fishy treats.  Another good one is a squeezy cheese tube of primula.

I would be patient with regards to the preparing food etc, he is a baby that hasn't got a lot of self control yet and is's possibly a bit unrealistic to expect him to be able to contorl him self in those situations.  You can still work on the training for them, such as teaching him and 'off' 'leave' and 'bed' cue, but until he really knows those cues well and has a bit more self control management is the key.  If you don't want him crated for doing these things can you not put an animal gate (available from argos) on the kitchen door.

All dogs are different and have different motivations, try not to compare him to your last doggie, it will only get in the way of yours and his very different relationship :-)  He sopunds like a pretty normal pup to me, it is hard work but with patience, implmenting positive training techniques where you reward him for the right behaviour and manage the situation to avoid him practising the bad as much as possible you will get there.

Sorry you had such a fright with the headache tablets, hope he's doing well now.  You just have to be extra vigilant with puppies that like to eat all and sundry, even then accidents happen to us all.  Little minx.

Karen

Crating a dog when your eating is a fantastic way of stopping them sniffing next to your plate or sitting salivating in front of you lol

We have always crated our dogs when we eat our food and when Im preparing it in the kitchen if they are getting under my feet and making it dangerous as Im using sharp utensils and I dont want to trip over and impale myself or my dog! So if they get under my feet its the command ''out of the kitchen'' and they go and sit right on the edge of the partition in the door, it looks so cute but they are out of the way and safe, then when we are ready to eat we pop the pup in his crate with a treat ball (our bitch is already trained for this and doesnt come anywhere near when we eat from using this exact method) and we get to eat in peace!!
The treatball is an important bit so he doesnt sit there and whine for your food and interrupt your eating but is occupied and not being told off all the time.

Thats the best remedy I have known to stop begging!! :)

Good luck im sure he will be fine as he is just a pup and the smells of your food is so much more tasty then his biscuits etc!! lol :)

Jumping up: Ok, this is going to sound daft, but it worked for me ;-) I taught my boy to jump up on command I then was able to teach him down on command. He no longer jumps up unless I allow it :-) I patted my chest with the word 'up' and made a fuss of him when he did it. I then told him 'off' and praised him when he got down. It didn't take him long to realise that I would be annoyed and wouldn't interact with him if he wasn't told to jump up, but he did.

Preparing, and eating food: There is no other way but to keep him away from this lovely resource - food :-) Even now I don't leave food out where the dogs can reach it. They all know not to come into the kitchen when I'm preparing dinner. They will stand at the kitchen door (drooling, I might add :-D ) but won't step in.

Lunging: The only way I found is to distract them before it happens, if possible. Otherwise a head collar (Halti, gentle leader, etc..) may be the answer, but only if distraction hasn't worked.

Hi again Debi - my, what a time you've been having!  Please God the (not so) little guy is fully on the mend soon :) 

TBH, Pups are awful LOL.  No matter how cute and cuddly etc they are they are without doubt a nightmare to those of us with a sensitive disposition ;)  It's only when we have a new one after a number of years with sensible adult(s) that it all comes roaring back how much time they take up looking out for dangers in and out of the home and trying to instill some sort of basic good manners in them as they grow like weeds and find ever better ways to test our skills!

karenclynes (as always) has given you some excellent advice - I'm sure if you can gather up some energy, staying power and focus for another few months  (sorry, it will be months!) you will have the most well behaved pup that others comment on and seek to copy :)

To make you feel better (maybe not, but problem shared problem halved :-D ) the lunging and mouthing of passers by is not uncommon with confident and sociable pups (strictly between you and me, I've currently got one - arrrrggggggh).   I now carry treats everywhere so that when I can predict it's going to happen I can distract him long enough that I can assess whether any oncomers are likely to want to say hi to him - this gives me a precious (very) few seconds to forewarn them that he might just 'bounce' :-D

Give yourself a pat on the back for doing so well thus far, don't beat yourself up about the tabs - a lesson learned and you're not the first, and share your successes with us all.  We're all still learning and re-evaluating how to go about things ;)
best wishes,

Teri

> You all must think 'this girl has a dog that she can't control and why has she got such a dog!!!'

No, I don't think that atall :) I have been through a lot of the same with my Mastiff pup, he was very good, for a few months, then he was diagnosed with ED and he hardly moved,  after getting that under control and he gained confidence and mobility he startded to find the whole world was his playground and it was all so much fun!!

I know how worrying the lunging & mouthing is.
What I did with Buster is get him to sit before he had chance to get exited and not let anybody touch him unless he was sat still and being calm, he then started to not associate people with so much exitement, he's 14 months old now and occasionally will need reminding to sit nicely instead of pulling me to greet somebody with OTT kisses & slobber.

I am not very experienced but I think shouting 'no' only adds to the exitement of things for pup, if you need to disagree with him, a calm, firm 'no' may be better, but give him an alternative too so he knows what you want him to do instead - a 'sit' will do - and remember to praise him when he does do what you say (even if you feel like strangling him!!!!).

OMG you poor girl !!! you are going thru it we are abit ,our bernese can be like this she is now 5months old and dont want to listern lol ,but i do create at meal times she is so greedy !!!! it takes her 48sec to eat her meal lol we timed her cus shes so greedy ,we carnt let her off the lead and run with how other dogs cus she goes on the food hunt and its what dogs have already past( yuk ) plus she as a senvertive tum (carnt eat chicken or rice ) so i know what your going thro hun , its flippin hard isnt it !!! but just keep doing what ppl here say and im sure somthing will work ,the only thing im lucky with she dont mouth thank goodness .....i do hope you find what works for him soon ,im still looking for it with ours :( xx

Oh you do sound like your'e going through a tough time with your pup - I hope there are no lasting effects from the headache pills he took.

I only have a small dog, so lunging wasn't so much of a problem with him in terms of size, but he would jump up at anyone given half a chance. Do you have someone your dog doesn't know who would be willing to act as a 'stooge' for you on a walk. I did this with my boy a few times when he was young and it seemed to make him think a bit about how he greeted people.

If you can get your stooge person to be walking on your regular walk at a pre arranged time, and to stop and say hello to you, but completely ignore your pup until he is nice and calm, then stroke him gently and calmly, this will help to reinforce the message of not having fuss unless all 4 feet are on the ground and he's calm. You will need to do this quite regulary, ideally with a few different volunteers if you can. The problem with strangers is that I bet your pup is at that stage where most people think 'oooh look a lovely fluffy big bear type cuddly dog' and make 'oohing' noises at him, which, in an already excitable dog, can only help to make them more excited.

As for the food scavenging - if you ever find a solution - let me know :-D I need it for mine :-D

Hope that helps.

Claire

hope your boy is okay.